Apple sends out invitations to October 23 iPad mini event

Apple has begun sending out invitations to select members of the media for their upcoming October 23 special event, widely considered to be focused on the iPad and Macs. Jim Dalrymple of The Loop has the details:

Apple on Tuesday announced a special event to be held on October 23, 2012 in San Jose. The event is scheduled to take place at 10:00 am PT.

The invitations read "We've got a little more to show you". Nice. In addition to the iPad mini, and perhaps an updated iPad 3 with Lightning cable and international LTE, we should also be seeing the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro as well as new iMacs and Mac minis. We should also see the final version of iTunes 11, and perhaps a bump to iOS 6 to support the new devices.

Reader comments

Apple sends out invitations to October 23 iPad mini event

Color splash is to signify the original iPad's event invitations from 2010 that had a white Apple logo with color splash that read "Come see our latest creation." This one is zoomed in, has color splash, and reads "We've got a little more to show you." Also, I would assume little plays into smaller iPad.

I'm sticking with iPad as the name. Macbook's come in different sizes denoted by 13 inch, 15 inch, etc. I doubt iPad Mini will be the name, it even sounds inferior to me. Guess we'll find out in less than a week!

"nano" makes no sense because it denotes something really tiny and not just small. There will be several iOS devices that are smaller than an "iPad nano" so it makes little sense to call it that.

Similarly, "iPad Air" would refer to a device that's the same as a regular iPad, but has as it's main feature being incredibly light and thin. The iPad mini doesn't fit in there either. It is lighter and thinner than the original, but not by a huge amount, especially after the iPad 3 is retooled. As the devices get smaller over time, it's likely also that the smaller bodied mini will actually end up thicker than the regular iPad.

It's main feature will be it's smaller (but not that much smaller), size and price. Ergo and therefore it will be "iPad mini." Bet on it.

Really though? If you're gonna be bold enough to call yourself the "trend setter" of tablet devices then you have to actually be better than the competition. You can't simply say you are, you HAVE to be a superior product. Apple always says this, so the followers expect it to be. When they're bested by products released prior to their own items, its easy to understand why people would get upset and post about what they did not get.

They created the modern tablet market. They're the whole reason the "competitors" can even exist in this space. And I say competitors because Apple still holds 68% of the tablet market. And how exactly is the third gen iPad not the best or at least one of the best? Have you seen its screen? and its speed? and its battery life?

hopefully they will have 6.1 or the next iteration which would be great. Hopefully they just released os 5.5 branded as 6 and this time they will reveal what they have trully been working on for the past months >:)

Did Apple say it was an "iPad mini event"? I see nothing in the event announcement indicating that. It would be really funny if there is no iPad mini. I'd be angry if I purchased an iPad 3 only for Apple to turn around and update it with a "lightning dock port" in the same year. Who's going to run out and buy an iPad 3 just because it has a "lightning" port that doesn't have an adapter bundled with it?

You completely contradict yourself... you'd "be angry if you purchased an iPad 3 for Apple to turn around and update with a Lightning port in the same year." yet you turn around and say "Who's going to run out and buy an iPad 3 just because it has a "lightning" port that doesn't have an adapter bundled with it?"

I think you're missing the point. The point isn't to be introducing a new iPad. It's to tweak the current generation iPad to help with the Lightning transition. Apple is not going to market as the fourth gen iPad. It's just a slightly tweaked iPad 3rd gen.